The 5" Blackmagic Video Assist monitor/recorder has, at long last, been updated by Blackmagic Design. This monitor has always represented a great value being that it comes in at less than $500 for a great 1080p panel along with professional SDI/HDMI connections, ability to record to SD cards, exposure zebras, focus peaking, etc.

Unfortunately, until this 2.3 firmware update, the more recently released 7" version had been the only one to have received all of these new features, while only selling for a couple hundred dollars more. This was obviously causing a lot of of early adopters of the 5" model to feel a bit "burned" when many, many months passed and it appeared that the new expanded features set would never be coming to their own 5" monitor.

While this was always a substantially less pricey monitor in comparison to the SmallHD and Atomos lines, it definitely had some glaring shortcomings in comparison to its competitors - namely the lack of LUT support.

This is even more essential these days since all Blackmagic cameras (as well as many others), shoot in LOG/flat profiles. Without the ability to properly monitor with a normalization LUT you are stuck trying to guess exposure and make aesthetic choices based on a low-contrast, low saturation image. It's possible, but definitely not ideal.

With the release of firmware 2.3, Blackmagic Design fixed that shortcoming by allowing you to load up to 6 LUT's to the monitor, giving you various "looks" to choose from to help you make important image decisions on set, as well as to not confuse/panic your clients if they see the bland and flat LOG image on the screen.

The other "headline" feature in this update is False Color. This has become a very popular tool for exposing digital sensors and is greatly welcomed by all. Though, while False Color is awesome to have, I'd say one of the least sexy, but most important new features in the 2.3 update is the improvement of the dreaded "green cast" that these monitors had displayed up until this point. The Improved colorimetry included in the update promises to improve the green tint/cast that had plagued the Video Assist monitor since day one, and will allow for a more neutral, and natural image to be viewed by the user.

Overall this is a very late, yet amazing update from Blackmagic Design, nicely rewarding their loyal customers by instantly adding TONS of value to their already existing product, for free.

Think you need an actual car on set to film a car commercial? Think again. The Mill's new Blackbird Transformable Car Rig allows filmmakers to digitally "skin" any car over the Blackbird's rolling chassis.

The frame is fully adjustable in length and width, to replicate the size and dimensions of the car to be skinned over the Blackbird's frame. The wheels can be changed and suspension adjusted to further match the driving characteristics.

It's packed full with an electric motor, 3D cameras for recording the surroundings and other extremely impressive tech.

I'm often asked to send clips with handles to other editors that I'm working with. Final Cut Pro X somehow still doesn't support exporting a clip with handles directly from the timeline, which hopefully will be fixed soon.

Until then, I've been using a method that can "Resolve" this problem!

DEMO

THE STEP BY STEP

Step 1.Complete your edit as you would normally, export the project FCPXML from Final Cut Pro X.

Step 2.Fire up DaVinci Resolve and import that FCPXML by going to FILE>IMPORT AAF/EDL/XML from the top menu bar.

This will prompt you with some settings windows, just click OK.

Step 3.Now your timeline should be open in Resolve. In the edit page you can select the clips you'd like to export with handles most easily by using markers.

Step 4.Once you've marked your clips you want to export with handles, you can go to the Export page and select the "Clips" drop down menu to filter for the clips with markers. Make sure to set your Export Destination and choose "Individual Clips".

Step 5.Choose the codec, resolution, etc that you want to export the clip(s) as, and at the very bottom of the "Advanced" drop down tab you can choose to add your desired length of handles. Once you do this, add the job to the render queue and export as normal.